Shrimp

What it is

The shrimp, or hip escape, is the movement that takes your hips away from your partner while you lie on your side, so that a knee can come in between you. It is footwork for someone on their back. Almost every escape and every guard recovery is built on it, which is why it opens most warm-ups.

When to use it

• Under side control: frame on the neck and hip, shrimp the hips away and bring the knee in to recover guard.
• Under mount: turn to a side, shrimp out from under their hips and slide the knee through (the elbow escape).
• In open guard, when they start to pass: shrimp away from the pass and put a knee back in front of them.
• In the warm-up: shrimping down the mat is how the hips learn the shape before a partner is on you.

How to do it

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat, hands up in front of your chest as frames.
2. Turn onto one side, with the bottom elbow tucked in and the top shoulder off the mat.
3. Plant the top foot flat on the mat close to your hips, knee pointing up.
4. Push off that foot and drive your hips back and away from your partner, so that your body folds at the waist into the shrimp shape.
5. Slide the bottom knee in through the space you have made, until the knee is between you and your partner.
6. Lie back flat, reset the feet, and repeat to the other side, moving down the mat in a line.

Key details

• Push with the foot, not the hands. The arms only hold space; the leg does the moving.
• Stay on your side. A flat back has no hips to push with.
• The hips move and the shoulders stay. If your head slides along the mat, you are pushing the wrong end.
• Space, then knee. The shrimp makes the gap; the knee coming in is what keeps it.
• Small and often beats big and once. Two short shrimps recover more than one long one.

Common mistakes

• Mistake: staying flat on your back and pushing with the arms. Nothing moves, your arms tire, and they armbar the straight arm.
• Mistake: shrimping without bringing the knee in. They follow your hips and settle back on top of you.
• Mistake: planting the foot far from the hips. The push has no power and the hips move a few centimetres.
• Mistake: shrimping away without a frame. They follow with their chest and you end up where you started.

What they will try

• The top player follows your hips with their own and takes the space away before the knee comes in.
• They pin the near elbow or crossface you, so you cannot turn onto your side to begin.